Dembele - Costa

[alpha]

Was this a jab, or was Dembele posturing? Check the incident here: https://streamable.com/q166

And really, we're 2-0 up. Is there any need to react like this?

 

[UpTownSpur]

It didn't look like a gouge to me. More like he just touched him under the eye. If he'd have gouged him Costa would have made more of it.

 

[alpha]

It didn't look like a gouge to me. More like he just touched him under the eye. If he'd have gouged him Costa would have made more of it.

That's how I see it really. I remember Mourinho gouging someones eye a few years ago when he was managing Real. And that did look like a proper 'gouge'.

 

[ajspurs]

Costa's so used to play acting that he doesn't even put his hand to the eye that was touched by Dembele

 

[alfie103]

Definite eye gouge for me. Deserves a hefty punishment.

 

[matthew.absurdum]

It seems that Costa wants to bite Vorm at the end of the match?

 

[mpickard2087]

I think it was crazy from Dembele, and no defending it. I admit though my views are shaped from being a big rugby fan and gouging/fingers in the eye being an absolute no-no that is really treated harshly and clamped down on. In rugby even lower grade clumsy/accidental 'contact with the eye area' offences are met with bans that are months long (see Chris Ashton recently who got 10 weeks for something very innocuous). A deliberate act would get you at least 6 months and for something as blatant as Dembele it would be longer still.

I'm not saying he should or will get something anywhere near that sort of length, but if the FA did make a bit of an example of him then I wouldn't be shocked. Was a real moment of madness from him.

 

[coy-spurs1882]

who knows what that **** costa did to our lads outside our vision

 

[alpha]

I think it was crazy from Dembele, and no defending it. I admit though my views are shaped from being a big rugby fan and gouging/fingers in the eye being an absolute no-no that is really treated harshly and clamped down on. In rugby even lower grade clumsy/accidental 'contact with the eye area' offences are met with bans that are months long (see Chris Ashton recently who got 10 weeks for something very innocuous). A deliberate act would get you at least 6 months and for something as blatant as Dembele it would be longer still.

I'm not saying he should or will get something anywhere near that sort of length, but if the FA did make a bit of an example of him then I wouldn't be shocked. Was a real moment of madness from him.

I'm no Rugby fan so can't comment on how it would be treated, but this appears to be no more than a light scratch of the face, near the eye. I'm not defending Dembele and think it was a stupid act to do, but it looks like he barely touched him. If he had gouged Costa's eye I think his reaction would have been more telling.

 

[Cornpattbuck]

It was a daft action by Dembele but completely out of character. Frustratingly, it was more innocuous than the Torres one years back on Vertonghen, and that went completely unpunished but resulted in the rules being tightened up.

 

[heelspurs]

It didn't look like a gouge to me. More like he just touched him under the eye. If he'd have gouged him Costa would have made more of it.

Removing my Spurs-tinted glasses for a moment and this is still how I see it. Anyone, anywhere, and under any circumstances is going to react far more reflexive and violently to an eye gouge. His head would instinctively move away from the poke/gouge yet Costas doesn't. Additionally the linesman had to see it yet when confronted by Clattenburg nothing was reported. My hope was it was just hands-to-face with no contact with his eye. And also, a big hope, that Costa is man enough to admit it like Gareth Barry did with the "no biting" issue.

But if he did gouge him then he deserves banning and it sucks for us.

 

[beats1]

 

[jezz]

All Dembele did was say to Costa you've got something on your eye mate, oh yeah its my thumb

 

[bat-chain]

Guys look at Costa go to,cover the wrong eye after the incident.

If he was gouged how could he instantly go to cover the wrong eye. It's laughable.

I would say it's impossible unless in reality he was not touched at all.

If you look at the eye in question in the moments after the incident it is not blinking or anything.

Again close to impossible I'm sure.

 

[Flashspur]

no gouge for me

 

[Gaz_Gammon]

Definite eye gouge for me. Deserves a hefty punishment reward.

 

[Nocando]

I'm sure the FA will factor in the mitigating circumstances* and be a bit more lieniant.

*I.e it was Costa and chelsea and they probably had it coming to them.

 

[daveduvet]

Agree; not a full on gouge but he'll get a ban.

 

[myhartlane]

I'm sure the FA will factor in the mitigating circumstances* and be a bit more lieniant.

*I.e it was Costa and chelsea and they probably had it coming to them.

Mate, I really wish it did work like that, if I were on the committee Chelscum would have been wiped of the face of the earth years ago.

 

[bubble07]

Just hope it's only 3 games. Will miss start of next season